Apple Watch Series 4 - Battery Health & Battery Life Issues

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Apple Watch Series 4 - Battery Health & Battery Life Issues

I have an Apple Watch Series 4 that I bought in Dec 2018 I think. Late 2020, the Battery health was around 84% and then in late 2021 it came down to 81% and stayed like that for more than a year. Later when watchOS 9.x came in, surprisingly the battery health jumped to 84%.

Though the battery health shows above 80%, I had issues with it's battery life. I thought Apple would consider a battery replacement if I am ready to pay. On repeated request, they simply denied stating that the diagnostics doesn't show any issues with the battery and as the battery health is more 80%, we cannot replace the battery even if I am wiling to pay for the battery replacement cost.

1> Has anyone experienced Battery Lifespan issues even if the battery health is above 80%?

2> Has apple rejected a battery replacement even if you are ready to pay?

3> Can apple reject Battery Replacement legally in Australia? (& it's still not a obsolete product)

few examples of the battery issues - before starting the workout app, the battery was 98% and after 20-30 mins of normal walk, the watch restarted and then showed 10% battery. When I restart it again, it shows around 76% battery. And one other instance, I saw the battery to be 13% and just put it on my wrist and in 2mins it went up to 17%.

Apple Watch Series 4

Posted on Feb 20, 2023 05:12 AM

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Answer 1

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LD150

Level 10

95,535 points

Feb 23, 2023 01:09 AM in response to sidshan

3% loss over 1 hour is too much.

It sounds like a worn out battery with internal discharge to me, and on that basis I was able to get my iPhone replaced, yes for hard cash, at 84%.

Please do the test again but for the full 8 hours and take a screenshot of the battery charge graph in Settings Battery, before and after the test. Press the crown and side button together and the photo will go to your iphone.

This is a graph from an iPhone with the same battery problem showing the off gap and the low charge level when powered back on.

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Answer 2

LD150

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95,535 points

Feb 22, 2023 02:11 PM in response to sidshan

They don't like replacing a battery with more than 80% even if you pay which I find totally ridiculous.

You could do the following test to see if the battery loses charge when powered off. That is how I got my phone battery replaced at 84% arranged through Apple Support.

How to check your Apple Watch battery fo… - Apple Community

You can tell them you did this and the battery failed the test.

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Answer 3

sidshan Author

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5 points

Feb 24, 2023 06:31 PM in response to LD150

Interesting Observations. I left it overnight as you suggested. here are the results.

before Switching-Off - 11.20 PM

2. Next day morning - 8.35 AM (watch was switched-off overnight)

3. Restarted the device and at 8.39 AM

And then stayed on 85% for few more mins.

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Answer 4

sidshan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 28, 2023 04:20 AM in response to LD150

Thanks @LD150. I sent the pdf-print off to Apple Support

But as I guessed, there was no response from them anyway. I will have to raise with the Australian Consumer Law and give it a shot.

Another interesting observation I just made now.

Here, today/now is Tues/10pm. The Watch was sitting at 100% at least for 2 hours on charger and when I checked the Battery Stats: It's not even considering that it hit 100% charge today. Even when I checked it again after 5-10 mins, still showed Mon/11.35 pm as the last 100% charge.

And I just took the watch from the charger:

Within 1-2 min, the watch lost 9% :-(, with no activity on it.

I lost hope on Apple Support. I feel, either the diagnostics that they use, is not correct or they just don't want to replace a battery.

But, thanks for your suggestions and I hope this post may provide some useful information to other users who may have faced similar issues.

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Answer 5

sidshan Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 22, 2023 09:46 PM in response to LD150

Hi @LD150 - thank you for the reply.

I tried as you suggested. 100% at 2.29pm and at 3.35pm I switched it on. (so after 65 minutes).

As soon as it was On,

it showed, 97%

and within 20seconds, 94%

and then in another 10 seconds 92%

and then in another 20 seconds it showed 85%

and then after another 10 seconds 86%

And is staying there at the moment.

I was also on a call with a Senior Advisor from Apple today morning, and they simply denied again stating diagnostic logs are good and battery health is above on or 80%, so can't replace the battery alone. I have to buy a new Series 4 device is the only option they gave.

He also said, the battery health has to be 79% or below. Even if it's 80%, they won't accept it.

I will think about if I need to go back to them again by showing this thread and the other link you shared, but I feel Apple being the bigger company is not going to even listen or review any of these pages.

But thank you again for the information.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 6

Rudegar

Level 10

178,836 points

Feb 23, 2023 12:34 AM in response to sidshan

batteries are analogue chemical products so any levels you get from them from current charge % to batt health are based on statistics and tiny changes in how fast the volts they output begin to fall when being used up

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Answer 7

LD150

Level 10

95,535 points

Feb 24, 2023 10:58 PM in response to sidshan

Yes typical self-discharge. It takes a while to get the frst bar sometimes.

Either the watch has a short circuit in which case I would expect it to get warm, or the battery has classic self-discharge.

I will warn that there is a possibility that if it is the first of those than a new battery will not fix it, but the lprobability is that it is the second one, sick battery.

Print off this thread and take it with you or print it to .pdf and send it to Apple Support if requested.

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Answer 8

LD150

Level 10

95,535 points

Feb 28, 2023 04:44 AM in response to sidshan

At least we proved their diagnostics have a big gap which is why I developed my two user tips.

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Apple Watch Series 4 - Battery Health & Battery Life Issues

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